If your profile and posts are set to "public" and you can read this very post, you should have no sense of "privacy" here on Fedi. That means ANYONE can reply.
There's 20,000+ instances and new ones every day, there's NO WAY to tell who is accessing your posts or what they're doing with them.
Fediverse is not some kinda "bastion for privacy" nor is there any sort of "consent" required to see your posts if they are public.
The only way you can be 100% sure that your followers are the only ones that directly see your posts is to make your profile and posts private. Even then, screenshots exist.
Remember, you're on the internet. Once you post it, it's probably not going away. This is true everywhere.
PSA: Since Threads apparently will be federating replies soon, I thought I should post this again, because there's still a lot of people that don't know.
When a normal user uses "block this domain" it's LITERALLY just a MUTE. The blocked server can still see, interact, and reply to your posts, you just won't be able to see them.
It's kinda like sitting in a room with hungry bears while wearing a blindfold. If you're scared of hungry bears, your best bet is to get out of the room, not put a blindfold on. And by this, I simply mean to migrate to an instance where the blocks are up to your standard on the "instance" level.
Stay informed and make informed decisions, no matter what you choose to do with your Fediverse presence.
Apparently not many people believe me when I say that "normal" users using the "block this domain" option, is functionally just a mute....
There's gonna be LOTS of very mad people when they find out for themselves that meta/Threads can still see their posts....😬🤦♂️
To actually block Threads, you have to be on an instance that actually blocks them. As of right now, the biggest instance that blocks Threads is masto.to
So all this talk most of you are doing, means absolutely nothing because the majority of you are still federated....
One sure-fire way to unearth a ton of great content from the less-visited corners of the #Fediverse is to follow accounts that #boost liberally. I refer to these as “Power-Boosters” and they are the key to keeping your feed awesomely diverse, extremely lively and damn-near algorithmic (in a good way). Here are some of the power-boosters I personally follow…
Occasional reminder: You don't need to censor words here on the Fediverse. There's no algorithm to dodge. All you're doing is bypassing people's filters and annoying them with things they'd rather not see. Instead, use properly spelled hashtags (ideally, camel cased) to improve your visibility.
#mastotips I've heard from a few folks that getting started in the fediverse is hard. They sign up and... nothing shows up. That's exactly right! There is no algorithm to get you started. Instead:
Follow as many people as you can
Look at who they follow and pick up a few more
Follow a few hashtags to bring in new stuff.
It'll take a few weeks but hang in there.
As a #UX person, it pains me to put this burden on YOU, we could do better here!
New to Mastodon and confused about why you don't see anything on your home feed and nobody interacts with your posts?
Follow people. Fedi has no algorithm beyond the "explore" tab. It works completely by follow relationships. The more people you follow with similar interests, the more likely they'll follow you back. Not to mention your home feed will be filled by their toots.
Hashtags. Full indexed search is EXTREMELY new and some instances haven't upgraded yet. Even then, some users don't want EVERY toot of theirs to be discoverable so they turn that feature off. However, Hashtags are always searchable for public toots. Litter your posts with relevant hashtags so people can find your toots!
I want to follow new accounts on #Mastodon and would appreciate if you could #recommend accounts to follow.
I am looking for accounts that add value through their toots. As you can tell from my bio my interests are varied and would like to follow accounts that concentrate on #knowledge based content.
If blocking threads.net functions like a mute, I still need a way to actually block #threads accounts so I don’t fall prey to Meta’s data exploitation.
Anyone? If you don’t know, boosting is appreciated.
Followgraph will provide you with all the follows of the people you follow.
What? OK, so say you have found a few accounts that interest you. Run Followgraph and you will see and be able to follow all of their follows ranked in order of how many are shared.
My year with Mastodon (#MastodonWrapped)
I celebrated my first #Mastoversary a few days ago. It’s been a good first year on Mastodon for me; I like the #Fediverse idea, I like people here, and I like the calm vibe this place offers.
Also, I ditched all of my other #SocialMedia accounts. All but one.¹
As I say, Mastodon is a good #platform to be, however there are a couple of things I’ve been struggling with the whole time. I’m going to put together a brief summary below in hope that someone can help me with them.
¹ I still keep Instagram to exchange cute pics of sloths and pandas, and ice-hockey reels with my sons. 😁
2/
The thing that buggers me the most is boosting.
I know boosting is important because it’s the only way to spread the news around as there are no #algorithms here to force-feed us what they “think” is good for us, and I’m quite a #booster myself, too. But I’ve cut back a bit recently for a simple reason: I can’t hide boosted posts from my #profile.
I mean, when someone views my profile I want them to see my toots first so they can get an idea of who I am and, conversely, when I visit someone else’s profile I prefer to see what they have to say.
If you’re a generous booster but not so creative in the “#ContentCreation” department, just like me, you get a profile full of re-blogged posts where your original #toots are hard to find. And no, #Pinned toots don’t do the trick.
If there’s a #hack to work around this, I would much appreciate if you share it here.
Do you want your posts to be as easy to discover as possible? You might want to opt into the "full text search" system.
By default, posts on here are only searched by hashtag. However, if you opt into full text search, all the words in your entire posts will become searchable by other people.
Do you need help with using Mastodon and the Fediverse? Especially if you're a beginner or unsure about techy things?
You can ask by messaging me or replying to this thread, and I'll try to help or find someone else who can help. Don't worry if a question seems silly or basic!
You can also look things up on the guide at https://fedi.tips, which has an "essentials" section at the top and a complete list of answered questions below that.
Miss those thread unrollers from other sites? There’s a Mastodon one!
You can mention @mastoreaderio anywhere in the thread with the word “u n roll" (without those extra spaces of course) and it will reply with a link to the unrolled thread.
On the anniversary of coming to Mastodon full time I’ve written a long post on my blog about my thoughts and experiences, the good, the not great.
This platform is one best things that’s happened to the web in he past 20 years. It’s not without its problems and it’s probably not for everyone but for me this janky platform has been pretty great.
Edit: I’ve clean up some typos and clarified a few things in the post. Should be good to go 👍🙏
While federation is great, it does create some confusion. For instance, when you want to refer to someone else's post, you may have tried to copy/paste the link and it doesn't seem to work right.
Unfortunately, you might need to understand a little about the way the fediverse works. Check out this new blog post:
Have you noticed an eye icon 👁️ in the top right corner of Mastodon threads? Do you wonder what this does?
It's actually a really useful feature:
If you're browsing a thread that contains posts hidden by Content Warnings (CWs), you can click the eye to toggle them all open or closed. This saves you having to open each post one by one.
(Note that different apps may have a different icon for this same feature.)
One of the biggest headaches with Mastodon is that references to posts need to link to the "Original Page", for instance: https://mastodon.social/@coreyspowell/111337469741810244. But what you really want is your "Local Page" so you can reply to the post. Just copy and paste the "Original Page" address into your the # Explore search box, and click "Open URL in Mastodon".